heartlanders.
The values vote was therefore far from universal, even if the champions of
their values purported their values to be.
Although a plurality (40%) of values voters equated “moral values” specifically
with the abortion, gay marriage, and stem-cell research, there were more issue-specific
values voters among Democratic values voters than there were issue-specific Republican
values voters among Republican values voters; and the most salient issue for all issue-
specific values voters was abortion, not gay marriage, despite the high profile of the latter
issue in 2004. Nevertheless, most values voters thought about values generally, not
specifically, about the social policies of abortion, gay marriage, or stem cell research. An
examination of campaign discourse indicates that the Bush campaign recognized, and
capitalized on this generalized understanding of “moral values,” while John Kerry
appeared to have exhibited a values deficit, even as, and probably because, he focused his
values rhetoric only on the explicitly religious.
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Convention